


Falling Backwards

by Rehearsal_Dweller



Series: Twin Trade AU [8]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Fun with inter-universal travel!, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-06-27
Updated: 2015-06-28
Packaged: 2018-04-06 09:51:25
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,409
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4217145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rehearsal_Dweller/pseuds/Rehearsal_Dweller
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“This is what it takes?”<br/>“Hmm?”<br/>“To get back home,” she whispered, shaking her head. “If – if this is the only option, then I can’t.”</p><p>[This is actually a standalone, but because it's loosely related to the TTAU, it's listed as part of the series.]</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Because I'm a terrible person, and easily distracted, I decided that instead of doing anything Twin Trade proper before the new episode, I'd write what would've happened if it had been URSA flung into the wrong universe instead of Mabel.

“ – the Author of the Journals. My brother.”

Mabel opened her mouth to say something, but stopped abruptly when another person was flung out of the portal with much less grace and a lot more screaming.

A kid, about Mabel and Dipper’s size. They’d landed hard on their hands and knees, and seemed to be having trouble catching their breath.

The Author turned around at the sound. “Ursa?”

The kid looked up. “Grunkle Stan? Wh-where are we?”

\--

Ursa’s hands hurt, and she was pretty sure that her knees were bleeding. Her ears were ringing, but she could still hear Stan, distantly.

“- my home universe, May-Bear. I’m sorry.”

Ursa twisted around, looking up at the big, looming portal she’d been thrown through. It was still active.

She launched herself upwards, toward the portal, but someone – Stan - caught her by the arm just before it flickered out.

“No!” she screamed, wrenching her arm out of Stan’s grip as she turned to face him. “ _No!”_

“Ursa, be calm for a moment,” Stan said seriously. “You shouldn’t be here. Were you in the room with me when I came through?”

“N- no,” Ursa replied, taking slow, steadying breaths. “I was in the other room with Max, like you told me to. And then there was this flash and suddenly I was on the floor, and now –“ She broke off with a choked sob.

Stan patted her shoulder sympathetically.

“Could somebody tell me what the heck is going on?”

Standing behind Stan were four people – a man who was clearly this universe’s Granddad Lee, a pair of twins who were probably Ursa and Max’s counterparts, and Soos (who was lying on the floor, apparently unconscious). The speaker was one of the twins, a very angry looking boy.

Stan pulled Ursa behind him, muttering, “Rule six.”

“You just told me this is your home,” Ursa reminded him, rubbing her ears. “I don’t think this really qualifies –“

“Rule. Six,” repeated Stan.

“Yes, sir.”

(Rule six was one of the rarely cited amendments to the Rules, added just before the first faceoff with Bill; it was basically shorthand for ‘stay back, this could be dangerous.’)

Not-Lee approached Stan, looking nervous. “Hey, Ford. Long time, no see.”

Stan socked him square in the face.

Sweater-twin gasped. “Grunkle Stan, are you okay?”

“ _Mabel_ ,” angry-twin said, elbowing sweater-twin.

Ursa laughed.

\--

After Grunkle Stan’s nose stopped bleeding and Soos woke up, they all trooped upstairs.

The Author took one look around the Shack – which was in shambles – and led everyone outside.

Mabel pulled the girl who’d shown up with the Author over to a tree stump and started pulling bandaids and disinfectant wipes out of apparently nowhere.

“ – get you all patched up in no time,” she was saying, all while the girl let herself be steered around, staring blankly at Mabel. “I’m Mabel, by the way. That’s my brother Dipper, over there.”

She gestured to Dipper, who quickly looked away.

“And you’re Ursa, right?”

“Uh, yeah.”

Dipper sat down, leaning against a tree. He tuned out the girls, trying to sort out his own head.

Grunkle Stan had opened the crazy, potentially apocalyptic portal to get his brother back. Much as he disliked the lying and everything still left unexplained, Dipper could respect that. He knew that he’d go to the ends of the earth for Mabel; it didn’t really surprise him that Stan would do the same.

That said, he was still too angry to even get excited over finally ( _finally_ ) learning the identity of the Author. Mabel had nearly gotten them all killed, Stan had lied about _everything_ …

Dipper’s angry musings were interrupted by someone kicking his foot. He looked up; Ursa (newly bandaged around the hands and knees) was standing there, looking nervous. “Dipper?”

“Yeah?” replied Dipper, trying to keep an angry note out of his voice. Ursa didn’t need that directed at her; this wasn’t her mess.

“Nice nickname,” she commented.

“Your name is _bear_ ,” Dipper pointed out.

“Yeah, I’ll grant that’s not much better,” Ursa said, shrugging. “But I like it better than my real name.”

“Same.”

Ursa sat down with the bottoms of her feet pressed together.“I got mine ‘cause of this.” She pushed up her bangs, revealing a birthmark remarkably similar to Dipper’s own. “Ursa Major, y’know?”

“Uh, yeah,” said Dipper, stunned. “I have one, too.”

“I thought so,” Ursa said triumphantly. “Dipper, I’m _you_.”

“Wait, what?”

“From another universe. My home universe, where Grunkle Stan’s been living since, like, the 80s,” Ursa explained. She jabbed over her shoulder with her thumb at the Author. “You’re even spending the summer with your Granddad, just like us! Well, not just like us. Owing to the whole –“ she waved vaguely at the Mystery Shack, which chose just that moment to give an ominous creak. “…yeah.”

“Granddad?” repeated Dipper.

“Yeah,” Ursa said, now waving at Stan. “Or do you call him something different here? Like, Gramps or something?”

“We call him Grunkle Stan,” Dipper said, “because he’s our _great uncle._ ”

“Nah, he can’t be,” replied Ursa, shaking her head. “Gru- Uh, _my_ Grunkle Stan doesn’t have any kids. Which means that unless your universe has a secret third Pines brother, Lee’s your granddad, same as back home.”

“I –“ Dipper stopped, suddenly realising that he couldn’t actually remember anything about his paternal grandfather, aside from the fact that he was _presumably_ Grunkle Stan’s brother. Only with all the lying Stan had been doing for the last 30 years… “Wait, back up, did you call the _Author_ ‘Grunkle Stan’?”

“I… guess?” said Ursa, her eyebrows furrowed. “I mean, yeah. Mabel called him that, too. The Author, I mean. She called your Granddad Grunkle. Why do you call him that?”

“I found this book at the beginning of the summer,” Dipper said, tipping his head back against the tree. “A – a journal, all full of notes on the weird stuff around town. Turns out it was the third in a set, and Grunkle Stan used them to rip a whole in space-time.”

“Oh my god,” said Ursa. She looked torn between excitement and distress. “Oh my god, you have one of the solo journals?”

“Solo…?”

Ursa grabbed her ankles and wiggled her knees a little. “Ford and Stan kept studying the town when Stan got thrown into our universe; there’s a whole vault of later journals in the lab. But the ones from before… the first three sounds about right, actually – those are locked up tight in a safe somewhere I’m not allowed to see. Ford says he was a little unstable, and levelled out when he got an outside look. But I’ve always wanted to see the solo journals, man. You’re so lucky!”

Mabel saved Dipper from having to come up with a logical response to this by tapping Ursa on the shoulder. “Hey, Stan and Stan-bro are arguing, and we’ve been up all night. Soos offered to drive us back to his abuelita’s place so we can crash. C’mon.”

\--

Ursa seemed really distressed by the state of their universe.

(Mabel was, too, honestly.)

Over the next few days, she walked around Gravity Falls with Mabel. She looked into fractured buildings, walked past totalled cars, and avoided enormous fissures in the sidewalks and streets.

All the while, she leaned on Mabel. “This is what it takes?”

“Hmm?”

“To get back home,” she whispered, shaking her head. “If – if this is the only option, then I _can’t_.”

Mabel stopped abruptly and gave Ursa a really squishy hug. “Don’t. Say that. Grunkle Stan –“

“Gramps,” Ursa interjected, smiling despite herself.

“- Gramps,” amended Mabel, smiling as well, “has done it before –“

“And look how well _that_ went,” Ursa said with a vague wave at the car on the roof of the laser tag building.

Mabel patted her face. “Shh. Gramps has done this before, and once Dipper’s… okay, you two can put your heads together, and you can get home _without_ blowin’ up the planet.”

“I – thanks, Mabel,” said Ursa. “Thanks.”

\--

Dipper really, really wanted to stay angry.

 _Buuuuut_ he had a curious nature, and he’d been waiting  - hoping – to meet the Author for so long… he eventually settled for just giving Stan the cold shoulder and avoiding eye contact with his sister. Only he was having a lot of trouble with getting words out in front of the Author, so overall he really just wasn’t talking very much.

“That’s not healthy, you know.”

He’d been sitting alone in a forest clearing near the Shack – which, like most of the town, wasn’t really safe for habitation yet – tearing up leaves. He glanced up.

Ursa was leaning against a tree a few feet away, wrapped up in a sweater of Mabel’s. “All the avoiding, I mean. I get that you’re pissed off at Gramps and your sister, but trust me, you’ve got to get out of your own head.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” said Dipper, avoiding her eyes.

“Suuuuure you don’t,” Ursa replied, her eye roll almost audible. “Don’t forget, Dippin’ Dots, I’m not just in your head. I’m _you_.”

“Oh yeah?” snapped Dipper. “What am I thinking right now?”

Ursa pushed off of the tree to come a little closer to Dipper. “You’re thinking… that this is a stupid exercise.” She smiled weakly. “But more broadly, you’re angry with Gramps for not explaining, but you can also understand his wanting to work things through with his 30-years-gone brother. You’re frustrated with Mabel listening to Stan over you, even though you know that in the long run she probably made the right choice.” She flopped onto the grass next to him. “How’m I doing so far?

Dipper shrugged.

Ursa snorted. “That good, eh?”

Reluctantly, Dipper smiled, too. “Keep going, we’ll see.”

“Okay!” Ursa wiggled around a bit, settling in. “You’re really enthused about meeting Stan, because you’ve been reading his journal all summer, but now that he’s here you’ve got so many questions and things to say that you can’t sort yourself out long enough to have a conversation with him. Side note: dude, he’s just a guy. And he _wants_ to talk to you, okay?” She ran her fingers through her hair. “And you have no idea what to make of me.”

Dipper opened his mouth to respond, then frowned. “Yeah.”

“S’cool,” Ursa replied, shrugging. “I don’t really know what to make of you, either.”

“This is weird,” said Dipper. He was picking at leaves again, idly pulling them apart down the veins. “Probably weirder than anything else that’s happened so far this summer. How are you so calm about this? I would be _freaking out_!”

“I, unlike you, am still talking to my family,” Ursa said. She paused, fiddling with the end of her braid. “Stan’s been through it, and all. But… I mean, of course I’m freaking out, Dipper. My brother –“ She stopped, looking a little deflated.

“Oh my god, I completely forgot,” Dipper said, smacking his forehead. “I’m so sorry, Ursa.”

Ursa shook her head. “Max will be okay. Trust your team, right? Team Stan will take care of him.”

“What?”

“Trust your team,” repeated Ursa. “It’s, like, the Stan Squad’s motto.”

“Oh,” said Dipper. And here _he_ was with all that ‘trust no one’ stuff.

“Do me a favour, Dip,” Ursa requested, “trust your team. You love your sister just as much as I love Max; appreciate what you’ve got, okay? Cut her some slack. She was only doing what she thought was right.”

“I… I think I can do that,” said Dipper.

“Good,” declared Ursa. She pushed herself up to her feet and offered a hand to Dipper. “Now c’mon. I didn’t actually come out here for a heart-to-heart; Stan wants to talk to you.”

Dipper, who had been halfway to his feet, nearly tumbled backwards in shock. “ _What?”_

Ursa laughed. “Chill, Dippin’ Dots! He’s not mad at you or anything. He just wants to have a ‘man-to-man talk about what you’ve learned this summer.’” She said this last bit in a poor imitation of their uncle. “So you’ve got until we get back to the house to come up with a good answer.”

\--

Mabel woke up with a start. She threw a stuffed animal at the shadowy figure on the air mattress next to her bed, hissing, “Ursa!”

Ursa rolled over, rubbing her eyes. Mabel had a sneaking suspicion that she’d been lying awake, but now wasn’t the time for that argument.

“Wha’s up, Bell?” Ursa whispered, with half a glance back toward the still-sleeping Dipper.

“This is gonna sound really weird, but I just talked to your brother,” said Mabel.

Ursa sat bolt upright. “You did?”

“Yeah,” Mabel said, nodding. “He wanted to know if you were okay, and for you to know that he is.”

It was dark, so it was hard to tell, but Mabel was pretty sure that Ursa was crying. “Thank you.”

Mabel crawled off of her bed and onto the air mattress, pulling Ursa into a hug. “You miss him lots, don’t you?”

“’Course I do, May,” Ursa mumbled into Mabel’s shoulder. “I miss all of it, and Max most of all.”

“You’ll get home, Urs,” Dipper mumbled from across the room. “I promise.”

\--

(She did, after a fashion. It took blood, sweat, tears, and a pair of fancy scissors, but she made it home.)


	2. [internal screaming]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I felt like Falling Backwards was a little too serious for a ridiculous, awkward moment between Ursa and Pacifica, but I did think that that needed to exist.  
> So I wrote a _whole bunch._  
>  Have fun! I sure did. :)

“I wanna introduce you to Pacifica,” Mabel declared over breakfast two days after Ursa had arrived with their great uncle.

“Who’s Pacifica?” Ursa asked warily.

“Pacifica Northwest?” Mabel said, raising her eyebrows. Ursa showed no recognition. Clearly this was somewhere their two universes differed. _Huh_. “She’s this sort of snooty rich girl, our age, only child in the most powerful family in town.”

“Oh-kay,” said Ursa. “Back home the Northwests have a boy, Orion. He and Max don’t really get along, but we’re on okay terms, I guess.”

Mabel grinned. “It’s not that different here, I guess. I just want to see Pacifica’s face when I tell her you’re our secret triplet or something.”

Ursa giggled. “Alright, I’ll play along. Although, strictly speaking, I think we might be second cousins. Or, like, quadruplets, depending on how you think about it.”

\--

“Hey, Pacifica!” Mabel called. “Pacifica, c’mere!”

As the blonde approached them, Ursa leaned over and whispered in Mabel’s ear. “You didn’t tell me she was _pretty!”_

Mabel snorted. “Does it matter?”

“I don’t really have a good track record with talking to pretty girls,” Ursa said, going faintly pink. “I’ll ruin your joke.”

“You’ll be _fine_ ,” said Mabel. She elbowed Ursa in the ribs. “Just relax, it’ll be fun!”

“Hi, Mabel,” Pacifica said cautiously. “Who’s your…” she eyed Ursa, “friend?”

“This,” Mabel announced dramatically, throwing an arm around Ursa’s shoulders and pulling her close, “is our _triplet_. She’s been at summer school, so she only just came up to Gravity Falls.”

Pacifica’s eyes went really wide when Mabel said ‘triplet.’ “There are _three_ of you?”

“You betcha!” Mabel said, grinning.

Ursa smiled, rubbing the back of her neck. “I - can’t believe they didn’t _tell_ you about me.” She chuckled, offering her hand to Pacifica on instinct. “I’ve heard all about _you_. Mini-golf, right? And, uh, something about a ghost?”

Pacifica smiled. “Yeah. Both of those things were terrifying.”

“I bet,” said Ursa. She glanced at Mabel, who gave her a thumbs-up. “Oh, uh, I’m Ursa, by the way. Apparently I miss all the cool stuff.”

“I dunno,” said Pacifica, waving one hand at Mabel. “With all the stuff your siblings get into, I think you’ll get your chance.”

Ursa chuckled. “If I’m lucky, you’ll be there, too.”

And then, realising what she’d said, she flushed bright red. “I cannot believe I just said that. Hey, May, look at the time! Don’t we have a – a thing? To do? Far away from here?”

Mabel grinned. “Yeah, totally. Let’s go. Bye Pacifica!”

“Yeah, bye, Pacifica,” said Ursa, still bright red.

Pacifica laughed. “See you around!”

\--

“Uh, hey, Pacifica? We’re going on our first adventure since the thing, do you wanna come?”

“I – what?” said Pacifica. “You know I’m not allowed to associate with you, right? My parents think you’re a bad influence.”

Dipper shrugged. “You don’t have to tell them you’ll be with _me_. They’re indifferent to Mabel, right? And nobody’s even _heard_ of Ursa in town, so…”

“Oh, your sister’s going to be there?” Pacifica asked, attempting to be casual and pretty sure she was failing.

“Well yeah, Mabel comes on all of my –“ Dipper paused. “You mean Ursa, don’t you?”

“I – yeah.”

“Yeah, Ursa’s gonna be there. Does that make a difference?”

\--

“Ursa?” Pacifica called at the end of August. “What are you still doing here? Didn’t your brother and sister leave, like, a week ago?”

“Heeey, Pacifica,” said Ursa. “I feel like it might be time to come clean with you.”

“Huh?”

Ursa looked around, frowning. “Come with me,” she said, grabbing Pacifica’s wrist and leading her over to a fallen tree and sitting down. “I’m from an alternate universe.”

Pacifica raised her eyebrows, looking sceptical.

“No, for real!” insisted Ursa. “I’m, uh, Dipper, but from the alternate reality. Look, we’ve even got the same birthmark!” She pushed her bangs back to show Pacifica, who still seemed unconvinced. “Oh, come on, Pax. Stranger things have happened!”

“I guess you might have a point,” Pacifica conceded. “Wait, what did you just call me?”

“Uh, Pax,” said Ursa. “It’s peace, in Latin. And your name means ‘peaceful’ so… sorry, do you not like it?”

“No, no, it’s nice,” Pacifica replied quickly. “I’ve just never had a nickname before.”

“Oh. Well you’re stuck with that now!” said Ursa, grinning.

Pacifica smiled, too. “So what were you saying about alternate realities?”

“Oh! Okay, well, _technically_ Dipper and Mabel could be considered my siblings, from a genetic perspective, but I think we’d actually be, like, fraternal quadruplets,” Ursa said brightly.

“Quads?” repeated Pacifica.

“I have a twin, back home. Max,” said Ursa. She shrugged, pulling her hair over one shoulder. “I – anyway, socially speaking, we’re more like second cousins. Their gramps is my great-uncle’s identical twin, and that great-uncle had been living as _my_ granddad’s identical _triplet_ since the 80s…”

\--

It was 2:30am on the 4th of April, 2015, and Dipper’s phone was ringing.

He tried to answer it with a hello, but what came out was more, “Mrruuugh.”

 _“Dipper!”_ the voice on the other end of the line said. “ _It’s Ursa. I’m with Pax at the Northwests’ California house. Well, actually, we’re in the woods.”_

There was a muffled shout in the background of, “ _Ursa, get to the point!”_

 _“Right, yeah, okay,”_ said Ursa. “ _See, we’re being chased by something and I’m not sure what and I don’t have my book. Help?”_

“I – what are you – Ur _sa_ , it’s the middle of the night,” Dipper said, sitting up and rubbing his eyes.

“ _Yeah, I know, I’m sorry. Kill me later. Help now.”_

“Fine.” He reached blindly for the book on his side table. “Are its eyes glowing?”

\--

“Yo, anybody home?”

“Wendy!” Ursa, who was midway through pulling on a sweater over her dress, stumbled down the stairs and into the front hall. “I thought you weren’t coming back for Thanksgiving this year.”

Wendy shrugged. “Plans changed. Thought I’d stop by.”

“Well it’s super awesome to see you and I want to hear all about school, but I’m actually running out the door,” said Ursa, gesturing unnecessarily toward the front door.

“ _For a date!”_ Gramps called from the kitchen.

“It’s not a date!” Ursa responded instantly, going bright red.

“Oh yeah?” said Wendy, eyebrows raised.

Ursa rubbed the back of her neck. “I’m hanging out with Pacifica, and Gramps and Grunkle Stan have got it in their heads that –“ She shook her head, still red.

Wendy laughed. “Okay, shortstuff. Go have fun _not_ on a date with the prettiest girl in your grade.”

“Shut up,” Ursa said, looking away. Her cheeks were still faintly red. “I should _never_ have told you about that!”

Wendy ruffled her hair. “It’s sweet, Urs. And I bet she’ll come around.”

“I don’t –“

There was a knock at the open door. “Oh, hey, Wendy.”

Ursa whipped around. “Pax!”

Pacifica chuckled. “Hey, Urs. You ready to go?”

“Yes, yes I am,” said Ursa. She gave Wendy a quick hug and joined Pacifica in the doorway. “Good-bye, family! I’ll be home by 10!”

“ _Have fun on your date!”_

“Oh my god,” Ursa said as Pacifica laughed. “Oh my god, let’s just leave.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Fun fact: Identical triplets are a thing, but it's rare. More likely are the kind of triplets that the kids were posing as (which is to say either three fraternal or two identical and one non-identical, depending on your headcanon).


End file.
